


The Moments We Lost

by orphan_account



Category: The Vampire Diaries & Related Fandoms
Genre: F/M, Modern AU, activist!Caroline, businessman!Klaus, businesswoman!Caroline
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-29
Updated: 2018-10-29
Packaged: 2019-08-09 07:47:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,642
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16445729
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: In a AU, where Klaus and Caroline met during college, an aftermath of Klaus' visit after unsolved problems, he came back only because of family. But Caroline has some questions as well.





	The Moments We Lost

**Author's Note:**

  * For [KlaroAJPunk](https://archiveofourown.org/users/KlaroAJPunk/gifts).



Klaus was a calm and calculating person. He wasn’t her best or dearest friend, but Caroline knew he somehow became the person she told everything. He didn’t know everything about her, neither was he a very considerate person so it wasn’t that unexpected. Only, that was a very long time ago. She still thought she knew the man that lived in that tortured body. And Caroline could not wrap her head around this incident.  
She said goodbye to her friends, promising them she would try to solve the situation, and left Elena's apartment where they were having a family get-together. She had to find him before things could escalate even further. There was no point to make all of this even more painful and excruciating to her. Caroline knew suffering and she would not be tortured because of a thing like love.

  
She tried everything, but he was nowhere to be found. The worst thing was that she should’ve been scared for herself, but she wasn’t. She didn’t even care what an awful person she was, just how awful things she has done. But she knew her priorities and it was to find him.  
Caroline searched the bars he preferred, she even went up against the scary old father who held the strings of that odorous house the family resided in, but Klaus was not there. And when she was on her way back to her apartment, she looked at the upcoming sun and suddenly knew where he was.

  
She made her way to the back of the campus she once almost considered home, at the outskirts of the town, and turned the few windy corners, hugging herself to resist the chilly November cold, and stopped when she could see the town that the campus was overlooking. The only spot where you could see the future clearly, they used to call it. She wondered was it still true.

  
The woman lowered herself beside the man that was asleep, his back to the cold building head hanging to the side. It was still dark and the moon above them gave her only the strength to sit in the quiet, trying to understand what could she have done different. She did not know when she slipped into a light sleep, leaning against her friend.

 

~

Caroline was never one to sleep too long, and the cold must have woken her up because the sun wasn’t yet risen, only starting to shine over the town, the rays not yet warming her enough. But when she looked to her right, Klaus was already awake. He was looking into the distance, and if she would disregard everything that happened, it would seem normal, the old normal. Only if it were so. “Finally found your senses?” Caroline couldn’t stop the sting that has built up during the night, searching for him everywhere.

  
“I have, love, but you have never been one to judge me fairly,” he answered. Klaus was never the one to back away from her arguments and usually, she appreciated it, but it was not the time to mess around. So she stood up, feeling the power of being above him, something that she always felt was his because of the age difference and the experience he had in his pocket.

  
“Of course, the big Klaus Mikaelson is the one who judges fairly. And of course, has the authority to judge while others don’t! But how can’t you understand that this time, Klaus, I am on your side! You know we want the same thing,” Caroline pleaded.

  
“Caroline, you know I know that,” he still looked ever so patient and collected but there was a spark of madness in his spectacular eyes. “It is my family we are talking about. How could’ve you thought I wouldn’t come and help her?”

  
There was always an understanding between Caroline and Klaus. They had similar views but the thing they could always agree on is that they would always give everything for the people they loved, which he considered his twisted family and Caroline cared for her friends more than anything - they were the only family that was left. But that was the problem. Her friends were a rebellious bunch and while she sometimes couldn’t even keep up with every crazy thing they’ve done, many involved fighting the corrupt of the world around them, which in turn involved Klaus’ family, the big company owners. But this time was not the case, and he had to understand that. “Klaus, I have never considered your actions for what they were but the intentions behind them. I could see the longing and love and all of it, but this is not the moment to show your loyalty to your family. This time, it is serious,” she tried to show the significance. But after all this time, she could not show the vulnerability and guilt that was threatening to overwhelm her at any moment.

  
As always, Klaus could sense there was more than she was telling him, “There was never a time I would hurt you, Caroline. I thought you were aware of that,” he concluded, and the guilt started to run wild.

  
“But how could you’ve? How could you’ve done something like that? His mother wasn’t fault for anything. Those kids were far from guilty, and still, now they are done, some might already be dead,” she got out. And it would be easier to handle if it wasn’t for the reason all of that even started. Yes, Caroline was fighting for the right side, unlike the man sitting in front of her but she knew she did it because of selfish reasons, and none of those intentions were even remotely right.

  
“You might just outright say what you are thinking. That I am a monster, and there is no way to save me,” he looked at her in a different light. The sharpness his earlier words had was still present, but the hurt was evident as well, at least to her.

  
That made her stop, a part of her wanting to But Caroline wanted to fight him, wanted to make him see just how wrong he was, how awful the things he’s done were, but she could not because she knew she did not ask for anything else. Nothing else beside him being here again. So she sat down next to him again, and tr, “I am glad to see you again. If it just were under different circumstances. But that will never be the case, isn’t that right?” And she looked at him with all the anger left in her frozen body.

  
“I guess the rumors are right, my love. That Lockwood kid has changed you with his small-town charm,” he gritted out the name, his emotions changing rapidly.

  
She would have loved to be more sophisticated than that, but she could only see red when his name was mentioned. “Don’t you dare bring Tyler into this,” she warned him instead but remained on the cold floor next to him.

  
The problem was that her group of friends, crazy friends, which every went in a different direction since ending high school have somehow still survived as a group due to their activist tendencies. They have planned several protests, helped puppies and people alike, but they were still young people who were discovering themselves. And in their latest conquest, they have discovered that there was a solution to a school abuse in the terms of the subject physical education. It could’ve helped at least one school, and might have been considered so good that the whole education could have changed. They took twenty four students on whom they would test their theory. Volunteers who would, with the agreement of their school, attend a different PE program. It was all looking well, and Tyler’s mom even offered to donate money for the whole experiment. Caroline, as the manager of their little organization nowadays, agreed, even while she knew about the illegal and secret business the older woman had with the head of the Mikaelson family, Ester. Caroline knew what it would mean to Klaus, and from a dark corner of her heart, she set the research on a path of destruction, knowing what it would bring and even leading Ester toward what would bring an end to the program. All of that was much more than those decisions, as all friendships are, and it might have been just to spite Damon who was against the start of the program altogether, but she didn’t want to voice those thoughts yet.

  
But it was not a smart decision to commiserate with Klaus Mikaelson. He stood up abruptly, but his words surprised her, “I have shown kindness, forgiveness, pity. It was all for you, Caroline.” And then, he truly looked sad. He was no monster, he was her friend, and whatever the circumstances and the fate brought them, he was here right now. And she would be stupid not to see her plan through.

  
Caroline stood up and for the first time in her life, she hugged Klaus Mikaelson and while his reaction was equal to stunned, he returned the bone-crushing hug.

 

~

They never apologized but somehow, even while Caroline found out that Klaus was staying only for a week of two, their friendship started again. Klaus was being charming as ever, but didn’t ask her much about anything serious and neither did he mention the equally messy past. “Who would have thought that Caroline Forbes would become a hippy?” he smirked at her in that devilish way. “Are you vegan? Have you ever worn a vegetable costume in one of your little parades?”

  
She almost spat out the coffee she was drinking, and damn him, why did she return his smile? “Just so you know, I had a campaign for non-GMO production only once and that was Bonnie’s idea,” she answered in a dead-serious voice and decided, two could play this game, “And just an FYI, it would be a damn good looking costume, from which would men and women equally fall to their knees.”

  
That indeed left Klaus shocked and he didn’t even hide the way he checked her out. It was interesting, the first few days, to see him squirm and dance around the question of was she still single. But it was more embarrassing than shocking when he found out she found out he asked around and already knew it was true. But he didn’t act on it, and as the day of his departure was nearing, Caroline became impatient. She was a woman of habit and security. And she was aware that the situation did not permit her to even think about this dangerous man at her side. But in some deep corners of heart, she knew what she wanted.

  
“I will have to leave you here love, if we want to make this thing right.”

  
“You know I would never compromise that. I have prepared the new strategy and it is ready to be launched if you, as the official partner of the business, sign to be welcoming of our services,” she looked him straight in the eye. There was no point in joking about one of the projects, as she learned. The problem their little shenanigans created were catastrophic and irreversible. Tyler’s mom was facing prison, still waiting for the trail and the kids ended up in a mental hospital, after they ended up in an accident where they were locked in different classrooms for almost a full day.

  
But the look he gave her in return wasn’t either professional nor innocent and somehow, she knew she could relax in his presence. And he corrected himself quickly when he shook off the emotion and looked as professional he could in her eyes. “You know I will not give you some kind of a pep-talk,” she teased him.

  
And then he squeezed her freezed hand, “I wouldn’t expect it, love.”

 

~

The next time she saw Klaus was unexpected. She was in her office, a spaced that her ‘friend-group’ divided into small cubicle-sized offices. He looked handsome in his black clothes, the steps graceful as ever, and the old, predator-like look in his eyes returned. If Caroline had to describe Klaus in one word, she would say sky. He could be the light of the day, or he could become the doom of your existence. All in one package of blue hair, green-blue eyes, and a slim figure - as unpredictable as hell. But she only mouthed a hello and smiled. The typical Klaus that he was, he stopped right in front of her and started, “I have to leave today, my brother Elijah called - there are some complications in Europe - and I have to go,” he stopped and that was what was unusual. Caroline was used to blunt Klaus, but not this type, waiting for someone else’s opinion or answer. She has never seen Klaus be insecure. “I was always honest with you Caroline, and I valued your honesty in return,” he answered in his international accent, as if he finally gathered the courage.

  
“I know you always wondered about the ultimate reason that made me leave and stay with my family.” He took a deep breath and continued, “I have offered you once to come with me Caroline, and my offer still stands. But I know your answer and I can’t make peace with the outcome of our messed up situations. You know the truth about the reasons, and that is why I want to ask you again, be honest with me, please: What do you desire Caroline?” And Caroline’s heart might have stopped.

  
Unfortunately, she was still breathing. She was aware of all of it, but the wound held raw. “Have you been honest with me, Klaus? For all your honesty, Elena has contacted me today, and she told me how you didn’t sign the contract, for some miserable excuse. You read the contract and you know it is legit. I made it, for God’s sake. All your talk about honest, you are no better. You are still that moody guy who everyone fears, only now with a degree in business and art,” Caroline spit out. It was not fair to make such demands of her, when he was avoiding the truth, the right thing to do.

  
“Caroline, what do you think I am? I know you,” he stopped and she was about to yell about his arrogance when she saw the vulnerable but intense look in his eyes. He was being honest. “What would you say if I were to say that I promise you I will sign the contract as it is? But I want the truth for that. The real truth.”

  
She could understand what he was saying and all that he was implying and at that moment, she was happy for her workaholic habits because there was no one in the office on Sundays except of her. So Caroline took Klaus’ hand to drag him to her and kissed him, her heart burning with years of unfulfilled desire, the kiss as delicious as she could only dream. He pushed her onto her table, and Caroline could not and didn't think about the mess they were making, about the windows behind his back, because she felt free, with him.

 

~

On Monday in the evening, when she knew Klaus would be on his way to the airport, Caroline received an email with the signed contract in the attachment but what caught her attention even more than that was the body of the email. It only said, However long it takes, Klaus. She didn’t archive the message but neither did she delete it, it was just standing there, a promise, or a whisper of hope in the one sentence for the long and open world at her feet.


End file.
